Jul 31, 2012

It seems Mitt Romney can't say anything without pissing someone off - which would be hilarious on any given day - but he's overseas, talking to "our friends" and allies, and making gaffe after gaffe. This should have been a photo op - slam dunk. He's making Sarah Palin look pretty good right now. Mitt the Twit.

First, he was asked about how England was doing in their job pulling off the Olympics - he answered truthfully, as anyone reading a newspaper would have noted that the UK security firm there had dropped the ball. But it came off as extremely insulting.

Then, he went to Israel to meet his old chum Ben Netanyahu. He didn't piss off the Israelis, but he sure pissed off the Palestinians. He said Jerusalem needs to be the capital, and then said the reason there's no peace is because the Palestinian "cultural differences" -- which would imply, well, they're violent and inferior. I don't understand why they're so offended* (*sarcasm).

Then he pulled his John McCain moment of "bomb bomb bomb Iran" and said that Israel can take the gloves off to take out a nuclear Iran. I may be paraphrasing a tad... but not much.

By the time he got to Poland, the scorched earth policy was already charcoal.

He might be a great business leader, but any claims to be a great politician or foreign policy wonk are now only tied with the current occupier of the White House.

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America 's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that,"the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”

Jul 28, 2012

Jul 26, 2012

Report
Shows Most Taxpayer Money Subsidizes Junk Food: $18.2 billion in
subsidies for junk food additives like High Fructose Corn Syrup!
From 1995 to 2011, $18.2 billion went to subsidies for junk food
additives compared to $637 million for apples, according to CALPIRG.

A consumer report released Wednesday revealed the majority of federal
taxpayer-funded farm subsidies are being funneled toward crops used to
make junk food and food additives, such as high fructose corn syrup.

Ron Cornelson, of Cornelson Farms, makes the trek from Fresno County to
the Santa Monica Farmers Market every Wednesday to sell the fruits from
his 10-acre farm.

"I’ve never seen a subsidy. I’ve tried and, as far I know, it all goes to the big guys and other commodities," Cornelson said.

Jul 25, 2012

Following the trend of sales and background checks up 60 percent in Arizona after Congressperson Gabrielle Giffords was shot, and in Virginia after the Virginia Tech University shootings in 2007 - sales and background checks in Colorado are up... way up.

Fighting fire with return fire.

Anecdotally, there are lines in front of Colorado gun shops, and firearm safety courses are booked solid for weeks.

Why? Maybe folks are tired of being victims?

The Internet cafe patron who shot and injured two men as they tried to
rob the business will likely not face any criminal charges.

"Based
on what I have seen and what I know at this time, I don't anticipate
filing any charges," said Bill Gladson of the State Attorney's Office
for 5th Judicial Circuit.

Gladson said he has reviewed the
security surveillance video from the cafe. While he still awaits final
reports from the Marion County Sheriff's Office, he said the shooting
appeared justified.

Samuel Williams, 71, who fired the shots, has
a concealed weapons permit, according to the Sheriff's Office. Under
Florida law, a person is allowed to use deadly force if he or she fears
death or serious injury to themselves or others. As long as the person
isn't committing a crime and is in a place where he or she has a right
to be, they are considered to be acting within the law.

Williams,
who lives in Ocala, could not be reached for comment on Monday. But at
least one of his 30 fellow patrons at the cafe wants to thank him.

Jul 22, 2012

"I now believe that, contrary to its original intention, Coach Paterno's
statue has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing in our
university and beyond. I believe that, were it to remain, the statue
will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the
nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse."~Penn State University President Rodney Erickson

Jul 20, 2012

I'm not going to comment, yet, about the shootings at the movie theater in Aurora Colorado.
Not until I have the facts, and as respect to the dead.

There is already a knee-jerk reaction against the 2nd Amendment going on in the news media. I'm not going to engage that. I will cut and paste the radio chatter from the Aurora police scanner though...

Val
Patterson of Salt Lake City, Utah, prepared his own obituary ahead of
time. In it, he got a lot of things off his chest. As in, all the dirty secrets he had
kept.

Now that I have gone to my reward, I have confessions and
things I should now say. As it turns out, I AM the guy who stole the
safe from the Motor View Drive Inn back in June, 1971. I could have left
that unsaid, but I wanted to get it off my chest. Also, I really am NOT
a PhD. What happened was that the day I went to pay off my college
student loan at the U of U, the girl working there put my receipt into
the wrong stack, and two weeks later, a PhD diploma came in the mail. I
didn’t even graduate, I only had about 3 years of college credit. In
fact, I never did even learn what the letters “PhD” even stood for. For
all of the Electronic Engineers I have worked with, I’m sorry, but you
have to admit my designs always worked very well, and were well
engineered, and I always made you laugh at work. Now to that really mean
Park Ranger; after all, it was me that rolled those rocks into your
geyser and ruined it. I did notice a few years later that you did get
Old Faithful working again. To Disneyland – you can now throw away that
“Banned for Life” file you have on me, I’m not a problem anymore – and
SeaWorld San Diego, too, if you read this.

Jul 17, 2012

Over 20 people fainted during this speech in Roanoke, Va. Probably because they couldn't believe he was continuing the line of B.S. that Elizabeth Warren started a year ago.

I was just going to leave this here and let you come to your own conclusions - but without the TAXES to hand out to the cousins and cronies who built the roads and "crumbling infrastructure" where else would the government come up with the money? And if you look at the history of paved roads - those were PRIVATE enterprises, including the Pennsylvania Turnpike. And if we're going to look at the history of governments moving people and goods along - let's have that argument. How's the Post Office doing? How's Chicago's CTA doing right now?

Sure, I got help from mentors and great teachers - but I didn't see those folks sitting with me until 2 AM getting my work done. I hit those deadlines, Mr. Obama didn't. Fairly sure the CUSTOMERS make the business work.